With the advent of computer networking, such as local-area networks (LAN), wide-area networks (WAN), intranets and the Internet, several applications have become popularized. In a first such application, a user of a first client computer is able to “call” and communicate with a user of a second client computer. In a second such application, the users of a number of such client computers are able to communicate with one another within a conference, similar to a telephone conference call.
However, in a large organization, or over an intranet or the Internet, there may be many users and many conferences, such that it may be difficult for any one user to learn of the conferences that may be joined or the other users that may be communicated with. To alleviate this problem, dynamic directories within products such as MICROSOFT NET MEETING have been created that store directories of available users to communicate with. Typically, such dynamic directories are stored on a type of server known within the art as an Information Locator Server (ILS). However, these types of servers as encased within products such as MICROSOFT NET MEETING may not also provide for the capability of storing conferences as well as users.
Furthermore, these types of servers introduce another problem for a user who desires to learn of other users that may be communicated with. Frequently, there may be many of these servers on a given network. The user, therefore, is required to know a priori the address of each of these servers before contacting them to learn of the users stored in their directories. This information may not, however, be known to the user, who may only know of one or two, but not all, of the relevant servers to contact. For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.